First, in local news: yes, President Bush is coming to town. Yes, the locals are going crazy. The right-leaning local daily has absolutely flipped, running a full page "welcome to the Black Hills" salute to George W Bush. No, it wasn't text. Just a full-page illustration depicting Air Force One flying over (on?) Mount Rushmore where the classified adverts usually begin. Here, see for yourself. Welcome, Dubya.

Unfortunately, only 2400 locals will be allowed to see Bush speak, all of whom picked up tickets yesterday. The daily also ran a photo of the first girl in line and a short explanation of how she and a few friends camped out for six or seven hours for the free tickets. This girl also briefly stopped by the ice cream store tonight, talking with a friend who had camped out with her about faxing some of the clippings her friends had given her to some other friends or something. I congratulated her on her score, and she ordered some food and wandered off. She seemed nice enough. Possibly an Ann Coulter-degree of scary just under the surface, but otherwise nice.

As for me... I have more dental work coming up. Ow. I also have these recurring dreams--thanks to the sleep provided by the acetominephan in the accursed Extra Strength Tylenol--where I'm back in high school, sort of. Not back in time, but taking some sort of college classes there. Some of my old classmates are there, too, but taking much more advanced classes. I'm sometimes back on the debate team in the dreams, wandering around strange places with Even, Cody, Meg, Jim, and others. It's starting to really creep me out; I didn't have these dreams in Iowa. Perhaps it is time to be leaving this place...